The Holy Spirit & Pentecostal Teaching

Criteria for testing messages based on

unmediated experiences of God

Part 1

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/rogereolson/2011/11/criteria-for-testing-messages-based-on-unmediated-experiences-of-god/

by Roger Olson

November 30, 2011

Since I mentioned the importance of unmediated spiritual experiences of God, several people here have inquired about criteria for testing them. Others have objected that positing objective criteria undermines the immediacy of the experiences.

Here I intend to propose some intersubjective criteria that all Christians should be able to agree on and use in testing messages, truth claims, brought forth as a result of unmediated experiences of God. I have in mind messages such as prophecies (whether forthtelling or foretelling), claims of new truths based on “rhema word,” etc. Insofar as an unmediated experience of God does not result in such messages, I see no need for criteria. Criteria become necessary when a person claims something was revealed to him or her that others should believe.

I offered these tests or criteria in an editorial in Christianity Today’s January 14, 1991 issue (p. 15). The cover story was about the so-called “Kansas City Prophets”–the controversy du jour among charismatics and some evangelicals. Rather than simply deny extra-biblical prophecy altogether, I (at the request of the editors), suggested these five tests for whether a prophecy (or other kind of extra-biblical message) MIGHT BE from God.

In other words, they are negative tests, like the law of non-contradiction in philosophy. They do not prove the validity of any message; they only function to raise red flags of warning over messages that might be false.

1) The Christ Touchstone. If a prophecy (or message) promotes Christ and not the prophet, it may be valid. (Put negatively, if a prophecy promotes the prophet over Christ, it is probably not valid.)

2) The Apostolic Norm. If it is consistent with the message of the gospel as found in the didactic writings of the New Testament, it may be valid.

3) The Unity Criterion. If a prophecy does not promote spiritual elitism or schism (based on the prophecy alone), it may be valid.

4) The Sanity Check. If it does not require the sacrifice of the intellect and the mindless acceptance of newly revealed teachings, it may be valid.

5) The Messiah Test: If it does not exalt some individual (or organization) into an object of veneration, it may be valid.

Paul ordered the Corinthian Christians not to quench the Spirit but to test all things. These criteria are simply tools for discernment.

More about direct revelations from God

Part 2

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/rogereolson/2011/12/more-about-direct-revelations-from-god/

by Roger Olson

December 2, 2011

I have a long list of theological topics I want to address here, but they will have to wait. I am enjoying the conversation here about unmediated, direct experiences of God. When I was growing up I often heard that “a person with an experience is never at the mercy of a person with an argument.” Well, I have come to doubt the validity of that statement if taken to an extreme of gullibility toward all claims of immediate experiences of God–especially insofar as they claim to bear “new truths” everyone should accept and believe and act on. Then I think argument (using my five criteria) is necessary.

But I think SOME people here may misunderstand what kinds of direct, unmediated experiences of God I believe in and think our evangelical churches need to be more open to.

First, there’s the inward experience of God in conviction and conversion. It may or may not be mediated through Word and/or sacrament. But even when reading of scripture provokes it (as in Wesley’s case) there can be, and often is, a sense of immediacy of God to the soul that is individual and intuitive (i.e., not amenable to proof or argument).

Second, there’s what I call “conversional piety”–the personal relationship with Jesus Christ in which God may speak directly to a Christian’s heart/mind giving guidance and direction beyond scripture [a sense of conviction, a sense of purpose, a sense of conscience, and so forth - re slater].

Third, there are “power encounters” such as healings, exorcisms, miracles. I have been in places where these are manufactured and, in my opinion, spurious. But I don’t discount them entirely. I’m sure God can still do these things and somewhere does. For the most part we evangelicals have simply relegated these things to the past or to other societies. [a friend of mine once said that we Americans have excluded God in our technologies and active/persuasive non-recognition of the divine - re slater]

Fourth, there are prophecies and words of wisdom and knowledge (no, I don’t know how to distinguish those and I would place “interpretation of tongues” in this same category)–divinely inspired messages directly from God to a person or group that transcend inward guidance for an individual. Many sermons have this character–or at least parts of them. I have known people who have heard God speak directly to them (and probably others in the listening audience/congregation) through a sermon with powerful, life-changing results.

[consequently, speaking God's active word to the ears of others may not result in the action desired, but perhaps create a hardening of hearts and wills instead. - re slater]

Unfortunately, both also happened in evangelical contexts relatively closed to such experiences and messages.

Many evangelicals outside the Pentecostal and charismatic movements have come to embrace these kinds of unmediated experiences of God. The difference is that in the Pentecostalism I grew up in, too often,

Evangelical scholars like Grudem and Moreland and others (often touched in some way by the Vineyard Fellowship or some other “Third Wave” ministry) argue that evangelicals should be open to such experiences and messages within a clear discernment process.

I think that, for the most part, evangelicals have taken the easy way and chosen to chase the Holy Spirit into the Bible.

A Personal Observation

Part 3

R. E. Slater

December 3, 2011

Introduction

I come from an evangelical tradition that misunderstood Pentecostalism's "charismatic gifts" of the Holy Spirit (I believe there were three - tongues, prophecy/revelation, healing). My tradition described these gifts as "Apostolic Gifts" that were used to announce the Gospel of Jesus Christ to both believers and unbelievers alike in the days of Christ's ministry. Moreover, they explained, that these gifts were then extended for usage through Jesus to His disciples (later understood to be more than the designated twelve disciples of Jesus we have come to associate with this term) during the days of His ministry.

Thereafter, on the advent of Jesus' death and resurrection, the Holy Spirit officially announced the risen presence of Jesus' ministry and glorified power on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 1) by a "baptism in the Holy Spirit" (Acts 1-10) upon the gathered room of despairing believers. Once baptised these Jesus followers spoke in tongues and prophecies and performed other miraculous events using the Spirit's "signs and wonders" to proclaim the Gospel message of Christ to believers and unbelievers alike. First to Jerusalem (Ac 1-7). Then to Samaria (Ac 8). And finally to the Gentile world at large (Ac 10).

Further, my tradition also said that these "signs and wonders" and charismatic gifts of the Holy Spirit became less vibrant as Calvary's cross receded further and further into the historical record. Perhaps within days or weeks of the event. Perhaps a few years or more after that. But eventually ceased altogether, especially with the passing of the Apostles (the gift of prophecy for instance). At which time the canon of New Testament Scriptures were closed so that no further revelatory instruction from God proceeded forth at the final laying down of the Apostle John's pen at Revelation's completion.

Years later, when still a young man, I was drawn for a short while into the world of Charismatic wonder and teaching. Explored it. And arrived at a separate, personal conclusion (not unlike Dr. Olson's discussion above). Which I will describe in the paragraphs below. This was my introduction into the evangelical side of Charismaticism. It lasted a brief two years and was abated when being reintroduced into the teachings of the bible on the Holy Spirit through a Spirit-filled church that was non-charismatic but didn't disparage the gifts of the Holy Spirit either. A church that was much more open to the Spirit's movement and filling perhaps because of the pagan culture it was surrounded by. Perhaps because of the Gospel's suppression and oppression within that university setting. I am not sure why. But I knew that this church's vibrant witnessed relied on the Spirit's power and testimony (and which would fit with the biblical usage of "signs and wonders" found within the early church's New Testament experience).

Miracles Announced New Covenantal Eras

Firstly, I would like to state that the gifts of the Holy Spirit should be distinguished from the miraculous events occurring around the period of Jesus' birth, ministry and death. Jesus' birth was announced by angels and prophets (John the Baptist, Zacharias of the temple, Elizabeth, etc). Jesus' ministry was full of miraculous signs and wonders. And Jesus' death was accompanied by both supernatural wonders and Spirit-inflamed men and women testifying of His resurrection and salvation.

Simply, without much further explanation at this point, miraculous "signs and wonders" are a mark of significant salvific epochal eras that have commenced (and which consequently conclude an older, passing, salvific era's transitional period). A kind of announcement, if you will, by God that He is doing something quite different from what He has been doing. These eras are marked by Covenants which begin (and seemingly end) with a flair of the supernatural. Examples are: (1) the Old Covenant commencing with Israel's deliverance from Egypt (10 plagues et al) and Moses receiving the ten commandments on Mt. Sinai (along with Israel's 40 year Wilderness journeys as God prepares them as His people). The (2) New Covenant that began with Jesus and continued through the Church Age. And, (3) the Kingdom Covenant to come when the events of the book of Revelation come alive and the Age of Man is finally displaced by Jesus' Rule and Reign that eventually will fold into a period known as (4) New Heavens and New Earth. Each period has been (or will be) marked by supernatural signs and wonders.

And on the reverse side, there is a correspondent activity of demonic or Satanic power. For instance, Pharaoh's sorcerers and magicians were able to produce look-alike "miracles" that would cause Pharaoh's stubborn heart to disbelieve God's message given to him through Moses. Through a series of events this time of "exodus" in the lives of the people of Israel would commence, or begin, the Old Covenant era (or time period) that would last until Jesus died and was resurrected, and the Holy Spirit created the church on the Day of Pentecost as a living society of believing Christ-ians. Another instance of demonic/Satanic power came at the formation of the New Covenant marked by Jesus' confrontation of demons through people He meets, or by events that occur around Him. Or, by Jesus' confrontation of Satan in the Garden of Gethsemane on the eve of His death. Or on the very Cross of Calvary itself. Then later, in the early Church's birth, as the New Covenant becomes operative, through the church's continual persecution and oppression at every step of its missional outreach from Jerusalem, to Samaria, and the Gentile world. Which we later understand to be the normative experience of the Church-at-large throughout the ages of man as shown through Paul's letters to the churches, and Peter's,  and John's. Including John's letter of Revelation revealing the intense spiritual warfare which will continually confront the church of God for its survival to keep to their faith throughout the length and breadth of the New Covenant Age (also known as the Church Age) and into the final times of Jesus' return. And during this New Covenantal era there will also be occurring an unseen war between the angelic realm with sin and devil until culminating in Revelation's narrative of the final rise of sinful man and fallen Devil that leads to the supernatural establishment of the New Kingdom to Come at Jesus' heavenly return that concludes the reign of man, sin and devil.

Thus, with each new covenant's arrival comes the displacement of the old covenant where new spiritual customs and traditions will arise to absorb and bade farewell to the old spiritual customs and traditions. And during these transitional times will also come both positive and negative supernatural events. Events from God and events not from God. Events that will fashion the newer covenant with newer content, purpose, activity, and meaning. As well as events that protest against its formation and continual renewal from generation to generation. And when these covenants are not renewed than sin and judgment will occur - as in Israel's case under the OT; or later, under the NT as the church presents its witness to the world. For in every succeeding generation both the covenantal community - as well as the society within outreach to that covenantal community's witness - is held accountable in each generation to obey God's word. When it is not obeyed than will come cycles of judgment, repentance and blessing. In today's terms the church is held accountable to be pure and actively obedient to God's will as it testifies of Jesus. When this does not occur, or if the gospel of Jesus is refused, then we may expect cyclical cycles within the church (and society) that will "rise and fall" in blessings or in judgment, from continent to continent as has been observed since the time of Calvary. And shall be observed in the future until the New Covenant era concludes in a culmination of global oppression, death, sin and destruction (known as the Great Tribulation and ending with the war of Armageddon under the Antichrist) concluding with Christ's return as prophesied in the book of Revelation.

During this time there will be miraculous events coupled with signs and wonders. These events and wonders distinguish the end of one covenantal era and the beginning of another covenantal era. We saw this with Moses before Pharaoh, Mt. Sinai; in Israel's Mt. Sinai and wilderness experience as the Tabernacle and its order of service, and the Torah's creation, were established. Afterwhich Israel (and the countries surrounding Israel) went through periods of blessing and judgment. This concluded with Jesus' birth, ministry, death and resurrection. The entirety of the OC era was concluded in Jesus. He received the blessings and the curses of God as the Messiah representative of the people of Israel. In Him was concluded the Old Covenant.

And in Jesus was begun the New Covenant. By His body and His blood. By His incarnation, anointment, ministry, passion, sacrifice and ascension. He became both the Lamb of God for the sins of Israel; the Priest of God as mediator; the Altar of God for atonement; the Tabernacle of God for provision and worship; the pillar of Fire by night and the cloud of Smoke by day as heat and shade for the tribes of Israel; verily He was Israel's burning heart of conviction as well as their merciful God of forgiveness; Jesus was the Table of God set before Israel in the wilderness of their sin; He was the prophet of God come to save His people from sin; He was the very announcement of God for salvation; He was Messiah born in a lowly stable before angelic song worshipping their King of Kings. As the Old Covenant ended in Jesus, so too did the New Covenant begin in Jesus. And likewise will the Kingdom era be initiated, ratified, and governed by this same Risen Jesus in the Age to Come.

God's Communion with Man

In a differentiating sense, today's gifts of the Holy Spirit under the New Testamental Covenant in Jesus no longer mark the announcement of the New Covenant. That has already occurred. But, in another sense, they mark the continuation of this era's redemptive power first begun with Jesus - its very Author and Sustainer. At first, God's "signs and wonders" began as announcements testifying to His Son's ministry. But later, they "quieted down" or "adapted", as the New Covenant age became normative (if normative can even be used when speaking of the Holy Spirit's power and ministries!). They smoothed out, as it were, becoming the standardized elements of the Christian life experience with the God of Salvation. So that our Christian experience as believers and follower's of Jesus, is marked with God's continual presence in our life. That very presence is both powerful and supernatural. It is the very definition of what it means to be a born-again believer who is more engaged with God than when he once was as an unconverted non-believer of Christ.  (At some later time, I would like to make the further case that the Holy Spirit's gifts and ministries were actually the non-normative experience of Spirit-filled Old Testament believers as well. Not just of prophets, priests and kings, but of any OT believer trusting God for something - Abraham, Isaac, Joseph, Joshua, Samuel, Gideon, etc. However, I will not make that case today in this article).

Which brings up an interesting point. The Bible teaches that God's supernatural presence is likewise with every person NOT acknowledging Jesus as Lord and Savior. NOT following Jesus. NOT believing in the Messiah Christ. This is based upon God's Sovereign Personage that Christianity teaches. God is not simply an inhuman thing, an infinite force, a vast creative power, but He is, within the centrality of His being, a Person in fellowship within a Trinity known as the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God is ONE God in THREE Persons. For without this fellowship there can be no personage. More specifically, no relational personage. That personage would otherwise be autistic, as it were, towards ITS relationship to creation and to mankind. But as a Personage bearing a Trinitarian fellowship can come the naturally occurring expansion of divine fellowship in constant and continual relationship to creation and to mankind (see - http://relevancy22.blogspot.com/2011/08/how-should-we-read-bible.html). That personage would not be autistic but personable, knowable, malleable in His relationships to the cosmos and to His image-bearers. This speaks to a concept known as relational theism.

Thus, God must relate and communicate to creation and mankind. This is the very definition of God. He is personal, loving, caring, good, merciful, helping, assisting, present and knowing. And consequently, He directs each life towards Himself until that life comes to a fuller understanding of who He is and what He has done through His Son. If this is not so then how do we come to God? On our own? Not according to the sin that is within us. Nor the world and devil that would blind us to God's presence by doubt, argument, lies and deception. However, for the follower of Christ, the experience of God is as a Father to a son, that are in communion one with the other. As versus communing with God through man's philosophies, or through nature, or some other fashion. Though these can be rich spiritual experiences, they are not the same as communing with God through the revelation of Himself through His Son Jesus, the second person of the Trinity. Who is fully God as he was fully man. Thus, God's final, fullest expression of communion lies in Himself. Through His redemption of man at Calvary's Cross. This communion provides the fullest expression of man's communion with God. None other. And this in itself is another kind of miracle, sign or wonder that has come to not only the Christian believer, but all mankind, in God's continual presence, witness, and work in each, and every, human life. Seeking our salvation and redemption to Himself through Jesus.

Ephocal v. Normative Covenantal Miracles

In any case, what I am trying to say is that epochal Covenantal miracles should be differentiated from normative Covenantal miracles - the latter being based after the commencement of a Covenantal Age. The one kind of miracle is used by God as an announcement of a new salvific era. The other kind of miracle is used of the Christian life that has as its starting point the preceding, historically initiated, salvific era. So there is the time element here which speaks to the charter and constitution of a covenantal era's establishment - and in our case, to the New Covenant established in Christ Jesus. Moreover, because of the time element, only those Christians during living during the time of Jesus' life, ministry, death and resurrection would participate as eyewitnesses to these supernatural, ephocal, events. Which events would also include the initiation of the New Covenant through the Spirit to the believers of Acts 1-10 on the Day of Pentecost, as Christ's Gospel spread from Jerusalem to Samaria and then into the Gentile world.

So that what we have now is the quality or characteristic of the New Covenant that marks every believer reborn in Jesus. These are normative characteristics of Christians baptised in the Spirit of Christ and "waking up" to discover their "new covenantal relation" with God through Christ Jesus their Lord and Savior. They are normative for all Christians today because they are part-and-parcel of what it means to be a Spirit-baptised believer. Which I use in the strictest, most narrow sense in description of being born again. We are born again by faith, but that faith is meaningless if we are not born of the Spirit, Romans 9.9 - "You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him."

Jesus calls this new birth a birth by water and by the Spirit. Water signifying the baptism in Jesus (which the Church celebrates by water baptism in various forms) . And Spirit signifying the believer's baptism in the Holy Spirit which is marked by God as the sina-qua-non descriptor of a believer's faith. To be in Jesus is to be baptised, or indwelt, into (and by!) the Spirit of God. Our faith proclamations ring hollow if we are not Spirit-birthed. It is through faith that we are born again. And with that faith comes Spirit rebirth, regeneration, transformation, conformation to the will and word of God. It is no simpler than this. Nor no harder. But it is sublime and changes everything for that believing man or woman or child. And when we doubt our faith it is to the Spirit that we place our trust for that born-again faith. Not ourselves. For it was, and is, and ever will be, an external event to our internal confidence in Christ as our Lord and Savior. This should be a comfort to us knowing that we are possessed, indwelt, sealed, and owned by the Comforter of God who is the Holy Spirit personage of the Godhead.

• Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God." (John 3.5; context John 3:4-6)
• That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. (John 3.6; context John 3:5-7)
• "The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit." (John 3.8; context John 3:7-9)
• But just as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so also it is now. (Gal 4.29)

Consequently, if you are born again then you have been baptised into the Spirit. Signed. Sealed. Delivered. Empowered. That is your positional standing. However, your personal experience in this life of flesh, sin and death may be otherwise, and most likely will fluctuate up and down in your faith walk and testimony.

The Every Day Wonder of God

Further, the experience of every believer is miraculous not only because of (1) God's presence in our previous non-believing state; nor (2) because of our formative spiritual rebirth, but (3) because the Spirit of God is presently active as a living dynamic who is in constant communication with the child of God. EVEN as He is within the world of mankind itself (which I prefer to kindly think upon as "God's children" in a non-strict connotation). So that our normative experience of the Spirit is actually quite non-normative. In fact, it is miraculous. And we are participants in the miraculous. Just like we can have daily communication with our family and friends, so too God communicates with His family of born-again believers through His spirit. God is spirit just as man is spirit. And within the Godhead of the Trinity He is known as the Holy Spirit.

It is our standard, normative experience of God - that is a miraculous, non-normative experience of God! - that can, and will, break out into our lives in unexpected, and powerful ways. And yet, because God's spirit moves in the quietude of our lives, between the cracks of existence, like the air that surrounds us, so too does His power and filling and direction undergird the believer in the totality of his life experience. Whether for ill or for good. God is there. He will protect you despite death, sin, evil or devil. You are His, and will be throughout eternity no matter the destruction done to our body and soul; our family, community or possessions; our heritage and lands.... In it all God will remove every tear and bind every wound. This is His promise to His children.

And it is this commitment of God to us that means infinitely more than any mere desire to see "signs and wonders" in our lives to prove His existence, love or care. For God is our everyday miracle, even while He is everyday performing "signs and wonders" within our feeble lives unseen and unobserved (see my Synchronicity article for more here). And through our lives. And between the cracks of our existence whether we know it or not. It is like the air that surrounds us. We breath it and don't realise it's intake. But it's there with our every breath, infilling us with God's life. God's care. God's love. Protecting us against evil. Against darkness. Against the wickedness of man or the harm of sin-racked creation, whether floods, tornadoes, storms or earthquakes. He is there. And ever and always will be there as your God and Savior. Trust Him and He will do the rest. This is the everyday, non-normative experience of every believer born in the Spirit of God. It is miraculous. It is sublime. It is full of wonder and pregnant with the miraculous signs of God's loving bond between the believer and Himself. (And, might I mention, to every man seeking God. Whether he knows it or not. God is there seeking him).

The New Covenant Age of the Church...

Is the New Covenant Age of the Spirit

For starts (and here is where I have blended my traditional views with my charismatic views), all of the gifts of the Holy Spirit are always present in all the eras of the church age, and within our lives specifically.  These are unrelated to the "closing of the canon of Scripture" and Apostolic witness. But are precisely based upon the Holy Spirit Himself, in that His relationship with the believer (as well as with mankind in general) is always active and communicative to us. For it is within the Holy Spirit's nature to communicate the person and work of God to our daily lives and surroundings. For that same Spirit is the very spirit of God Himself. They are one and the same. The third person of the Trinity is the very Godhead, and vice-versa. This is the mystery and wonder which is God.

In other words, without resorting to any additional criterion but very the person of the Holy Spirit Himself we may say that God's word-and-work is always active and participatory as a regular, normal functioning of what it means to be a "born-again child of God" (as well as part of humanity itself,. For God ever reaches out to all men everywhere, as well as to creation itself, as He recreates its "renewal" ecologically). Thus, God is always speaking to us. He is always directing us into His will (whether expressed or otherwise). He is always seeking our obedience and observance that would speak of His love and grace. Mercy and truth. Justice and compassion. This is man's normal, regular, everyday experience of God in His personage and in His relationship to creation (a theme that I have begun to call "Relational Theism".

The Purpose of Holy Spirit Empowerment

We must then ask as a necessary consequence, "What then is that will of God?" For myself, I understand it to mean that we are to testify of God's love and grace through Jesus Christ in as many innumerable ways as possible. Using all of our talents, our skills, our possessions and positions, our relationships and inventions. In as many unique forms as we possibly can to communicate God to others (as well as to ourselves in times of doubt, distress, or tiredness).

What then of the three charismatic gifts that were at one time excluded from my lexicon of Christian experience? For myself, I understand them now to be fully operational and added back into the bible as veritable truths. But with a difference not commonly understood by either side. Let me explain.

The Gift of Prophecy

As concerning prophecy, I too am open to God's work through my life and other people and events. I don't deny the supernatural. Nor the miraculous. Though I do understand them in a differentiating sense as mentioned above.  Moreover, I "test the spoken word of men (and angels)" to the criteria Dr. Olson quite ably listed at the outset of our discussion. But additionally, have lowered my resistance and barriers to God as much as is feasibly possible. When others speak, I listen. When others work, I observe and perhaps participate within this experience. I test the spirits to see whether they are of God or of men (works of flesh or of false prophets). To see if Jesus is praised and glorified. Not myself. Not the works of my hands. Not to effectual harm of others in conscience, in exclusion from community, or in judgment.

More plainly, prophecy proclaims God effectively and powerfully in personally unsettling ways and non-typical teachings than we normally experience or hear. For me, a good positive example would be that of Emergent Christianity's message. I doubted it for a long while (and with good reason... but more on this in a moment...) before finally coming to participate in it's renewal of Christianity.

Another example I can think of (in the negative sense) is that of religious folklore, or the religious customs and traditions, that were errantly appealed to as necessary dogmatic expressions to my faith experience by my Christian church and friends. But God deemed these traditions and customs as idols to my faith and sent a word of prophecy to my spirit to discern and disrupt those misleading religious conventions. God said to lay down, and not participate, in the idols of judgment and gossip, condemnation and unlove, safe teachings and safer worship. To reach beyond my denomination's religious conventions to those "outsiders" who are not among us, as Jesus once did when He ministered to sinners and the irreligious turned off by the religious institutions of their day. In fact, Jesus was so successful at doing this that He created a firestorm of hatred by the religious Sadducees and Pharisees, the self-appointed protector guardians of Israel's bankrupt faith. They hated Jesus because He spoke against their "religion". And this is what I am referring to as the idols of religious folklore, conventions, and tradition's (for more on this subject go here - "Christian Smith - Introduction: The Bible Made Impossible". The prophetic teaching of better discerning men and women more experienced with the foibles of the popularized Christian faith message became the vanguard of a newer, more loving, more expansive message of Christ's gospel than what the regional faith communities were communicating around me.

Prophecy then is the plain tell of God's communicated will and word to us. Usually at significant times in our lives when we have become too comfortable with God. Too at ease with His word. With His people. With God's ministries in general. And in the case of emergent Christianity, it took me about ten years to determine whether this movement was a new Gnostic movement of mysticism, confusion, and false teaching. As it first seemed to me as it wandered in-and-out of Christian sectarianism; created a subjectively-defined revisionism of Church history; sought a form of naive deconstructivism rather than a more proper theo-sophic deconstructivism (and the necessary constructivism that consequently follows); and promoted liberal political policies ill defined to capitalism's less-socialistic structure. It seemed to wander from New Age practices and theories to good-will humanitarian practices full of human-spirit. And before all of this, a group of well-meaning Christians infiltrated our emerging church and sought to impose a form of Judaism upon the congregation. Proposing to fill the Christian faith with dead OT customs of diet, calendar dates, dress and law. Recommending a Judaihistic form of Christianity rather than a Messianic Christianity that respects the past but does not return to it.

Eventually it sorted itself out, and I later concluded that the Emergent Christian Church movement that was being birthed around me was largely misunderstood and being very being badly communicated by illiterate and ignorant Christians who really didn't know themselves. And as time went on God directed their hearts and discernment to better behold and speak this newer brand of Christianity - seemingly so new, so radical. In effect, God gave to us, this baby Christian community, prophetic insight into the do's and don'ts of Emergent Christianity (helped quite a bit by the provocation that occurred from other branches of the church through disapproving faith congregations and denominational heads-of-state).

From the outset the desire of emergent Christians was to speak of the Christian mission and the Gospel of Christ to the world in less acrimonious and judgmental terms. To be more open to loving the unlovable. To remove and destroy the withholding idols of evangelical religion so that Jesus Himself could be seen (deconstruction v. construction). All the while, I prayed and sought God both for these individuals and for my own individual direction. As a result, the testimony of this web blog can now attest to a fuller idea of what Christianity should be (regardless of movement or label). And I believe that this was done by God's spirit when giving to me His prophetic word of wisdom, illumination, revelation and instruction.

Lastly, as concerning prophecy, I believe a good preacher, or an expressive Christian, can speak God's word-and-will powerfully. In socially coercive, and expressive, ways. Non-charismatics call this "forthtelling" while charismatics call it "prophecy." Neither group understands these words to be extra-canonical (that is, to be included in the canon of Scripture). But both groups can believe it to be the normal, operative work of the Holy Spirit expressed by the Godhead itself, into our work-a-day world and life experiences. God has the habit of "making clear" to us what we must say and do, when we learn not to quench or resist His Spirit. When this happens it can be powerful. Unexpected. Remarkable. Invigorating. Inviting. Penetrating.

The Gift of Healing

Secondly, I believe God heals. When asked to participate in the healing ceremony of someone I know, I go at the invite. But it is up to God either to heal or not to heal. In my most recent, sad experience, the beloved wife of a friend died a tragic death nonetheless. However, I believe that even through this experience of suffering and death there occurred healing.... How? Through that person's soul and life affairs, her husband and family, and even her friends and those who assisted her through her time of turmoil. Healing occurred. But in this case it was not physical healing. (see the sidebar "Ed's Story" for more on this subject).

I have also experienced healing from God and have heard its testimony of healing from unexpected friendships made with Christians and non-Christians alike. Mostly, this healing has been to my spirit and soul, family and friendships, at work and within community somewhere. Ungodly things like anger, envy, bitterness, hatred, gossip, ill-will, and so forth. Sinful baggage that keeps us from living the life that God fully wants us to have and experience. Like dark closeted secrets and skeletons we dare not share nor let lose for fear that God would love us less. God's spirit of healing comes to these situations and resolves our sin, our fears, our griefs and torments and gives to us good hearts full of light and life that can be shared with so many destroyed around us. Though physical healing is often prayed for, I find myself more often praying for the spiritual healing of people's abandoned souls, unloved spirits, and broken hearts. I think this is God's gift of healing that I read of in the Bible, more often than not, than the standard Pentecostal, or Charismatic teaching, on the subject.

The Gift of Tongues

Lastly, lest I neglect the gift of tongues, I will note with you the use of the Greek work "glossia" (English, "glossary") from which we get the word "tongues" in the New Testament. When glossia is used it is always used in an evangelistic setting where an apostle or Jesus followers are speaking the Gospel to others ignorant of Jesus' redemptive work. They speak in non-native tongues and consequently must hear in their tongue. Apparently, God's emissaries are gifted to speak in that dialect or speech so that the Gospel is heard and understood.

Modern day examples of this may be missionaries that we know who rapidly pickup a language in order to communicate Christ. I know a very young man who we have followed here from time to time (sidebar - Missions: Sojourneys - http://relevancy22.blogspot.com/2011/09/sojourneys-update-isaan-thailand.html) who, in the space of nine months, learned Thai. He was an ex-skateboarder traveling with KKSM ministries, born and bred in West Michigan, with no foreign language or culture background. But his heart was burdened that he could not speak Jesus to the Thai around him and God gifted him with that ability as he rapidly consumed and studied the language. More amazing still is that he learned this language without the help of a grammar aide or premier. By comparing the KJV Bible he had with a purchased Thai Bible (Wycliffe?) he taught himself the language's correct spellings and grammars when conversing with native Thai people. To me this is amazing, if not miraculous, and an evident gift of tongues by the Holy Spirit.

Let me stretch this paradigm a bit further.... I often think of "tongues" when found in an unlikely group of people foreign to me and my background. When I have been placed into these circumstances - perhaps with gang members I'm working with; past Chinese groups I became friends with in college; Caribbean island peoples and Central American cultures when travelling;  even gender-based cultures once foreign to myself - I've found God to give me the ears and tongue to listen and speak powerfully within those circumstances. Even though the language we are using is English, the culture itself was uniquely different from mine own. It required "extra radar" as it were to piece together the needs and wants of those individuals and communities as Christ was testified to. In this instance I understood it as a gifting of the Spirit to be able to communicate (both verbally AND non-verbally) within cultural situations even though the same language of English was being used. I was gifted by the Spirit to speak of Christ to people dissimilar to mine own heritage and background.

Summary

So then, when charismatic gifts of the Holy Spirit are thus framed within the experience of humanity they become understood as the normal, regular experience of any man (saved or unsaved) hearing God's word and will and responding accordingly. It also works in reverse when we think of Pharaoh's stubborn and hardened heart. Or the religious leaders of Jesus' day. To disobey God's expressed word and will can harm us for we are effectually refusing the Spirit's testimony of Jesus which is blasphemy. Though I don't believe the Bible teaches that blasphemy of the Spirit can ever stop God from reaching out to us; it does however, sour and sear our heart from hearing as well as we could. In those cases God may create bigger life disturbances to awaken us from our deathly slumber. In Israel's case He sent prophets. They refused to hear His word. Then God sent judgment. Eventually they woke up and either died in their sins (like Pharaoh of Egypt) or repented from their sins (like Nehemiah and Jonah). Let us not provoke God so far. Let us be of humbler stock and readily invite Him in. Give ear to His word and seek His will!

Thus, I don't need to speak in angelic tongues nor have angelic interpreters to interpret for me. It makes no sense. For when we're used of God in other's lives we have become "like as to angels" - which in the Greek means "messengers" (angelos). In other words, we are become the very angelic messengers of God's word sent to speak His words of ministry. We have become like Christ Jesus our Lord who came to heal and bind up the wounds of humanity's ills and brokenness. Who has done (and is doing) the same for us (and in us presently). Christ didn't use the language of angels but the language of love. He spoke in a tongue that could be understood. He needed no further interpreter than that of the Holy Spirit. He lived and ministered in a clarity that was refreshing. Christ prophesied of God. Of the Kingdom of God to come. Of His passion. His death. His resurrection. Of the Comforter to come. In all three of gifts of the Spirit Jesus is our example. He healed. He spoke in tongues. He prophesied. These are God's gift to us when understood aright and not misled in our human wills and sinful hearts (like Simon the magician who sought the Spirit's power when converted to Christ but initially misunderstood the Spirit's ministry to a broken humanity - Acts 8).

And finally, if we speak in this kind of a "heavenly language" then it is enough. It is not self-edifying. And it does not waste the time of another believer in the task of interpretation, when that time could be better used in reaching out the Gospel to the lost and unsaved. An activity that should be enough as evidence to God's power and testimony. For we need look no further for spiritual evidences than the saving power and healing of the Holy Spirit in the lives of men and women telling one-and-all of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and living in obedience to Him.

A Christmas Story of Common Sense and Baby Jesus

A Nativity Scene was erected in a church yard and during one cold night it received a lost and cold visitor. An abandoned dog was looking for a comfortable, protected place to sleep. He chose baby Jesus as his comfort station. When discovered during the night, no one had the heart to send him away, and so he spent the entire night there until the next morning when church staff brought him to a rescue shelter (this story was submitted by that same shelter).

The moral of the story: "We should all have the good sense of this dog and curl up onto Jesus' lap from time to time where His everlasting arms are ever open to the lost, the abandoned, the despairing, and unfound." He is as far away as the sigh of a heavy heart sent in prayerful cry and need. And as close at hand as the nearest passerby whom God will send to meet those needs.

Lastly, it should be noted that this dog's breed is a German "Shepherd." Patently driving home the idea to any onlookers not recognizing the significance of the Christ-child - borne in a manager, heralded by angels, worshiped by shepherds of the field, and come to be the Good Shepherd of mankind on a cold winter's eve.

R.E. Slater

December 11, 2011

* * * * * * * * * * * *

The Birth of Jesus Christ (Matthew 1.18-25, ESV)

¹⁸Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. ¹⁹And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. ²⁰But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. ²¹She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins." ²² All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:

 ²³ "Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall call his name Immanuel"

(which means, God with us). ²⁴When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, ²⁵but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.

The Birth of Jesus Christ (Luke 2.1-20, ESV)

¹In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. ²This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. ³And all went to be registered, each to his own town. ⁴And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, ⁵to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. ⁶And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. ⁷And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

The Shepherds and the Angels

⁸And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. ⁹And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear. ¹⁰And the angel said to them, "Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. ¹¹For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. ¹²And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger." ¹³And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,

¹⁴ "Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!"

¹⁵When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us." ¹⁶And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. ¹⁷And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. ¹⁸And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. ¹⁹But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. ²⁰And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

My JEDP Observations of Biblical Cultural Preservation

My Observations

The Continuing Balance Between Holism and Accuracy

[Extracted from an earlier submission]

http://relevancy22.blogspot.com/2011/11/king-james-bible-historical-timeline.html

R.E. Slater

December 1, 2011

The following JEDP discussion (below) must be broached if only to show that God's revelation through Abraham and Moses, and Israel's later tribes and monarchies, was as complex a process as can be imagined. A process that endured the split of the monarchy into two separate kingdoms with their own separate traditions and beliefs. And later, two separate exiles (one for each kingdom) into foreign pagan countries which only added to the complexity of the textual/source transmission problem of Israel and Judah's epistemologies and culture.

During that time much of Israel's 1st Temple period traditions were lost due as much to their own negligence and nonobservance as to the massive exiles suffered by both the Northern and Southern tribes on separate occasions. Later, under Ezra (and others) the ancient institutions of Abraham and Moses were reconstructed and re-instated during the 2nd Temple restoration period. Many schismatic groups arose during this time, each perceiving some element, or other, of significance necessary to the preservation of their perceived traditions. (As example, John the Baptist's own Essene movement in the NT would be an instance of one of those of groups).

This early "redactionary" effort lasted from the 2nd Temple period into the InterTestamental period, and then through the time of the New Testament, until AD 200. It felt incomplete (as witnessed to by the many sectarian groups that arose in disagreement with one another) and was not standardized by any officiating priestly bodies as observed during Jesus' day of the early 1st century. Here we have the start of incipient (very early) "Rabbinicized" thought occurring in its incomplete construction of a Jewish "orthodoxy" as they debated each other - as demonstrated with Jesus and His disciples - over lost Mosaic traditions. Including their ancient Jewish culture which has already been said to have been lost due to the Israelite and Judaistic tribes nonobservance of their traditions, and because of the displacement of each disobedient tribe from beyond the "Holy Land of their birth."

[Please permit me an aside: ...Interestingly, "Holy Land of birth..." is a problem that continues to this day. One that falls under the Semitic idea of "birthright and inheritance." Rather than learning to live together as blended cultures (regardless of one's location on this planet) we as humans must discriminate and empower our un-loving actions towards other groups different from ourselves, as rights of fiat and control over "competing groups" to our own sociological group. In this case, the Jews have elevated their rights over-and-above their Palestinian, and later, Muslim neighbors. Each struggling with the other for land rights, political recognition, and safety - though the same could be said of any country around the world that has competing groups within, or outside, their borders (America not excluded). Each struggling for ascendancy over the other rather than cooperating with each other and using their cultural differences as added strengths to their continuing blended corporate identities rather than as detracting causes for separation and disharmony.]

Much later, in the late 2nd century, around AD 200, the Rabbinic tradition was codified having established the Torah with its separately perceived Jewish traditions that is observed by conservative Jewish worshippers of today some 2000 years later (again having morphed and endured millenia's of exile and cultural assimilations throughout Europe and the Middle East from the early centuries to the middle ages to today). This codification / ratification process was probably necessary due to the very popular reaction of regional Jews to the Jewish-Christian spread of the Gospel. As well as to its early influences within the early Jewish-Messianic church itself that had arisen in popular acceptance of Jesus radical teachings to the perceived notions of early Rabbinicism's Mosaic understanding of God, the Mosaic law and grace, mission, ministry and life. Meaning that, even in Rabbinicism's early days Jesus had told the Pharisees and Scribes that their perceptions of God, God's law, their faith and worship - even how they went about reducing their dogmatic perceptions into their culture - was misguided. Focusing on the rules of religion rather than the God of their religion. Jesus rebuked the religious bodies time-and-again for guiding their flocks into religious legalism and  austerities rather than into the grace and life of His Father's Gospel.

And lest we Christians think we're "off the hook" here it is Emergent Christianity's observation that whether Emergent, Denominationally Progressive, Evangelic - or whatever Christian group that we prefer to be affiliated with - these attitudes still persist today. We have taken the Gospel of Jesus and have usurped God's love and grace into rules, rules, and more rules. Rules that appeal to our self-righteousness. Rules that appeal to our pride. Our legalisms. The old man of our flesh. The deceits of our hearts. The lies of our tongues. And the blindness of our eyes. We have missed the simplicity of God's Gospel in Christ by making a "religion" out of it rather than a "life" out of it. God did not intend His grace and love to be hard. Its as clear as personal sacrifice. Personal service. And personal sharing. To follow Jesus' example is to follow a life that is selfless, giving and transparent. Its no harder than that. Our faith should be living. And it should be living-out God's love and grace to one another. Not systematized. Not legalised. Not legitimized. Not worship'ized. Not dogmatized. Not.... anything! Jesus is the ground zero of the Christian example. His atoning life, death and resurrection gives our faith its reality and energy. We are His disciples and follow Him in obedience as His disciples. It is no harder than that. And it is as simple as that despite all that we would do to confuse and muck-up the purity of God's love and grace by our more human interpretations and demonstrations of "service, worship, love and duty."

And so then, I'm sharing below the JEDP effort of source criticism more to show how difficult it was to preserve both the oral and written traditions over millenias of religious tradition, personal interpretive preference, understanding and constitution when it was especially misunderstood and neglected even in its earliest years before tribal feuding began in political earnest. Through the books of Joshua, Judges and Samuel alone we see disruptions of faith occurring through simple inobservance and education of their faith, let alone the local and regional wars that dissembled their collective knowledge and process of learning. Prophets came and they went decrying Israel's lack of attention to Torah and worship of YHWH. They were ignored or killed. Making us ask, just what are we attempting to "collect" in our eternal pursuit for the original autographs of the Word of God - even amongst Israel's earliest histories of political formation?! For it seems that what we can collect is only what's left to collect. Which is Israel's own history of understanding her ancient God through the millenniums of her struggle to apprehend the divine. A collective knowledge that perhaps presented together can lead today's postmodern church to hearing Jesus' words more clearly  than through our own creeds and confessions and church traditions built up over similar millenias of inobservance and misapprehension.

So that when we speak of God's "Word" our only credible evaluation of it now must be through Jesus and His disciples as they understood and interpreted the much older Abrahamic and Mosaic faith which had been lost and gathered-in as much as it was possible after Israel's return from their Babylonian exile. Verily, traditions and cultures by their nature can (and will) be lost due to time's ravages and the human psyche's perchance for selective memory. But the salvific truths of God's love and grace endures  however they are passed on to the next generations for all time. And this is the nub of our observations here. It's not in the lost details that we wish to re-discover and interpret, but in the plain evidences that we still know - and have preserved right before us - that actually are the remaining legacies of Israel's ancient faith. That God is actively involved in His people's lives to preserve and protect their living faith so that it may be shared with their friends and enemies alike. A faith important enough to be shared of God's love and forgiveness to all men and women everywhere. What has been lost has been lost. And in a sense is not necessary to recover because of the larger thematic themes left before us. But in another sense if recovered will show the durability of those sames themes in ages past of God's patient love, willing forgiveness, austere holiness requiring atonement, the necessity of redemption, of belief, of faithfulness, of mercy, wisdom and good judgment shown to ourselves and to our neighbors around us.

And it is these elements that are the rockbeds of faith's persistence. Not how long a priestly skirt should be. Or where a temple vessel should be properly placed. Or how many times one bows to the East or to the West to praise God. Those are man's weak cultic attempts to appease his legalistic spirit and sin's blinded prevarications of religious division and pride. God has given to us the freedom to worship Him within the infinite totalitarity of our enterprising human spirit and boundlessly creative imaginations. He is neither less pleased, nor more pleased, with our efforts to grasp and live His love and grace, truth and Spirit. It is for us to follow, obey, worship, and behold the splendor of His creation. From its many forms of suffering to its many forms of delight. We do not need to muck-it up with the overburden of our guilts and ignorance.

So that regardless of cultural proscriptions and approbations - including those ancient Jewish customs of yesteryear, or today's more recent heritage of Gentile/church traditions - all men everywhere may enter into the Kingdom of God without cultic formality except by the blood of the Lamb and the holy breath of the Spirit of God! It is not important whether we worship God as a Jew or as a Gentile, with bells on our dress and headpieces on our bearded heads - or shaved heads for that matter! What God is looking for is our heart's devotion - whether it has been circumcised in Christ and betrothed to the Cross of Christ. For it is in the heart that our worship ultimately lies. Not the color of our skin. Nor the traditions we observe. Nor how worn our knees are from following the religious traditions of our church's prescripts and liturgies. For the Kingdom of God is trans-national, trans-cultural, trans-temporal in all of its behaviors and inclinations. God is our birthright. He is our inheritance. And it is all made possible through Christ Jesus His Son until He comes again in the renewal of all things at some future day of final resurrection and infinite grace.

Amen

Section 3

HISTORICAL TIMELINES OF

OT & NT TEXTS

(Click on Picture to Expand to a Series of Gallery Views )

 The JEDP Old Testament

Documentary Hypothesis

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Documentary_hypothesis

The documentary hypothesis (DH) (sometimes called the Wellhausen hypothesis), holds that the Pentateuch (the Torah, or the Five Books of Moses) was derived from originally independent, parallel and complete narratives, which were subsequently combined into the current form by a series of redactors (editors). The number of these is usually set at four, but this is not an essential part of the hypothesis.

Diagram of the Documentary Hypothesis.

*	includes most of Leviticus
†	includes most of Deuteronomy
‡	"Deuteronomic history Judges, 1 & 2 Samuel, 1 & 2 Kings

*

includes most of Leviticus

^†

includes most of Deuteronomy

^‡

"Deuteronomic history
Judges, 1 & 2 Samuel, 1 & 2 Kings

The documentary hypothesis assumes that the text of the Torah as preserved can be divided into identifiable sources that predate its compilations by centuries, the Jahwist (J) source being the oldest, dating to as early as the 10th century BC, along with the Elohist (E), the Deuteronomist (D), and the Priestly source (P), dating to the 8th to 6th centuries. The final compilation of the extant text is dated to either the 6th or 5th century BC.

In an attempt to reconcile inconsistencies in the biblical text, and refusing to accept traditional explanations to harmonize them, 18th and 19th century biblical scholars using source criticism eventually arrived at the theory that the Torah was composed of selections woven together from several, at times inconsistent, sources, each originally a complete and independent document. The hypothesis developed slowly over the course of the 19th century, by the end of which it was generally agreed that there were four main sources, combined into their final form by a series of redactors, R. These four sources came to be known as the Yahwist, or Jahwist, J (J being the German equivalent of the English letter Y); the Elohist, E; the Deuteronomist, D, (the name comes from the Book of Deuteronomy, D's contribution to the Torah); and the Priestly Writer, P.

Julius Wellhausen's contribution was to order these sources chronologically as JEDP, giving them a coherent setting in the evolving religious history of Israel, which he saw as one of ever-increasing priestly power. Wellhausen's formulation was:

• the Yahwist source ( J ) : written c. 950 BC in the southern Kingdom of Judah.
• the Elohist source ( E ) : written c. 850 BC in the northern Kingdom of Israel.
• the Deuteronomist ( D ) : written c. 600 BC in Jerusalem during a period of religious reform.
• the Priestly source ( P ) : written c. 500 BC by Kohens (Jewish priests) in exile in Babylon.
• The Redactors: first JE, then JED, and finally JEDP, producing the final form of the Torah c. 450 BC.

While the hypothesis dominated biblical scholarship for much of the 20th century, it has been increasingly challenged by other models in the last part of the 20th century. Its terminology and insights continue to provide the framework for some modern theories on the origins of the Torah.

History of the Canonization of the OT

Theorized Transmission of OT Text based upon ancient JEDP Sources:

From the Judahistic (Yahwehistic), Israelite (Elohim/Elohist), Deuteronomic, and Priestly traditions.

Then proceeding from Redactors JE, to JED, to JEDP, and finally canonized into the today Torah.

[from Wikipedia continued]

After Wellhausen

Distribution of materials of Jahwist, Elohist and Priestly sources,
as well as Redactor's contribution in the first four books,
following Richard Friedman.

For much of the 20th century Wellhausen's hypothesis formed the framework within which the origins of the Pentateuch were discussed, and even the Vatican came to urge that the "light derived from recent research" not be neglected by Catholic scholars, urging them especially to pay attention to "the sources written or oral" and "the forms of expression" used by the "sacred writer". Some important modifications were introduced, notably by Albrecht Alt and Martin Noth, who argued for the oral transmission of ancient core beliefs—guidance out of Egypt, conquest of the Promised Land, covenants, revelation at Sinai/Horeb, etc. Simultaneously, the work of the American Biblical archaeology school under William F. Albright seemed to confirm that even if Genesis and Exodus were only given their final form in the first millennium BC, they were still firmly grounded in the material reality of the second millennium. The overall effect of such refinements was to aid the wider acceptance of the basic hypothesis by reassuring believers that even if the final form of the Pentateuch was late and not due to Moses himself, it was nevertheless possible to recover a credible picture of the period of Moses and of the patriarchal age. Hence, although challenged by scholars such as Umberto Cassuto, opposition to the documentary hypothesis gradually waned, and until the 1970s it was almost universally accepted.

This changed when R. N. Whybray in 1987 restated almost identical arguments with far greater consequences. By that time three separate models for the composition of the Pentateuch had been proposed: the documentary (the Torah as a compilation of originally separate but complete books), the supplementary (a single original book, supplemented with later additions/deletions), and the fragmentary (many fragmentary works and editions). Whybray pointed out that of the three possible models the documentary was the most difficult to demonstrate, for while the supplemental and fragmentary models propose relatively simple, logical processes and can account for the unevenness of the final text, the process envisaged by the DH is both complex and extremely specific in its assumptions about ancient Israel and the development of its religion. Whybray went on to assert that these assumptions were illogical and contradictory, and did not offer real explanatory power: why, for example, should the authors of the separate sources avoid duplication, while the final redactor accepted it? "Thus the hypothesis can only be maintained on the assumption that, while consistency was the hallmark of the various [source] documents, inconsistency was the hallmark of the redactors."

Since Whybray there has been a proliferation of theories and models regarding the origins of the Torah, many of them radically different from Wellhausen's model. Thus, to mention some of the major figures from the last decades of the 20th century, H. H. Schmid almost completely eliminated J, allowing only a late Deuteronomical redactor. With the idea of identifiable sources disappearing, the question of dating also changes its terms. Additionally, some scholars have abandoned the Documentary hypothesis entirely in favour of alternative models which see the Pentateuch as the product of a single author, or as the end-point of a process of creation by the entire community. Rolf Rendtorff and Erhard Blum saw the Pentateuch developing from the gradual accretion of small units into larger and larger works, a process which removes both J and E, and, significantly, implied a fragmentary rather than a documentary model for Old Testament origins; and John Van Seters, using a different model, envisaged an ongoing process of supplementation in which later authors modified earlier compositions and changed the focus of the narratives. The most radical contemporary proposal has come from Thomas L. Thompson, who suggests that the final redaction of the Torah occurred as late as the early Hasmonean monarchy.

The documentary hypothesis still has many supporters, especially in the United States, where William H. Propp has completed a two-volume translation and commentary on Exodus for the Anchor Bible Series from within a DH framework, and Antony F. Campbell and Mark A. O’Brien have published a "Sources of the Pentateuch" presenting the Torah sorted into continuous sources following the divisions of Martin Noth. Richard Elliott Friedman's Who Wrote the Bible? (1987) and The Bible with Sources Revealed (2003) were in essence an extended response to Whybray, explaining, in terms based on the history of ancient Israel, how the redactors could have tolerated inconsistency, contradiction and repetition, indeed had it forced upon them by the historical setting in which they worked. Friedman's classic four-source division differed from Wellhausen in accepting Yehezkel Kaufmann's dating of P to the reign of Hezekiah; this in itself is no small modification of Wellhausen, for whom a late dating of P was essential to his model of the historical development of Israelite religion. Friedman argued that J appeared a little before 722 BC, followed by E, and a combined JE soon after that. P was written as a rebuttal of JE (c. 715–687 BC), and D was the last to appear, at the time of Josiah (c. 622 BC), before the Redactor, whom Friedman identifies as Ezra, collated the final Torah.

While the terminology and insights of the documentary hypothesis—notably its claim that the Pentateuch is the work of many hands and many centuries, and that its final form belongs to the middle of the 1st millennium BC—continue to inform scholarly debate about the origins of the Pentateuch, it no longer dominates that debate as it did for the first two thirds of the 20th century. "The verities enshrined in older introductions [to the subject of the origins of the Pentateuch] have disappeared, and in their place scholars are confronted by competing theories which are discouragingly numerous, exceedingly complex, and often couched in an expository style that is (to quote John van Seter's description of one seminal work) 'not for the faint-hearted.'"